


as a hello

by respoftw



Series: 35 Ways To Say I Love You In The Pegasus Galaxy [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Coma, M/M, Self Sacrificing Rodney, Worried John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 23:11:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7733482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I Love You Prompts #1: As a hello</p>
            </blockquote>





	as a hello

The echo of John's boots thundered in his ears as he raced through the corridors of Atlantis. The wail of the self destruct alarm was a harsh counterpoint to his heavy breaths and the ominous silence of his radio.

"Rodney," John pleaded. "Talk to me, buddy. Give me an update." His feet skidded as he rounded a corner too sharply, making him almost collide with one of the useless transporter doors that would have made his life a lot easier right now. He had no idea how long was left. Three minutes on the countdown when he had left the 'Gate room at a dead run. He'd been running for a minute? Maybe two? It couldn't be close to three. Not yet. He wouldn't let Rodney do this. Not if he could help it.

"I'm ready, Colonel."

The resoluteness in Rodney's voice chilled him, made him feel physically cold like all the warmth had left his body, had left the world. He knew that wasn't true. Not while Rodney was still talking anyway.

"You don't have to do this," John begged. "We'll find another way. We always find another way."

"I'm not dead yet, Colonel. This might not even kill me." Rodney's attempt at optimism sounded so forced that even if Zelenka hadn't made it clear back in the control room how suicidal Rodney's plan was, John would have known that he was lying.

"Im not willing to take that chance," John panted through heavy breaths as he pushed his body to the max, the room that housed the control chair just around the next bend. He could make it, he could stop this, he could - -

"Ten seconds, John." Elizabeth's voice crackled through the radio, her voice wan and thin, like she was already grieving, like it was already over. With one last burst of speed, John rounded the corner just in time to see Rodney lean back in the chair, just in time to see those intelligent blue eyes widen in surprise, just in time to see that crooked mouth slant upwards, opening on a final goodbye that Atlantis stole from him.

Rodney's scream of pain as the corrupted pathways of Atlantis linked with his brain brought John to his knees as he crashed into the chair that was likely ripping it's way through Rodney's mind while John could do nothing but watch.

The wailing alarm stopped around the same time that Rodney's scream cut off with a choked gasp and John's eyes blurred as he watched a single trail of too red blood trickle from Rodney's left ear.

He had never hated Rodney before that moment.

* * *

Three weeks.

Two weeks of worrying that Rodney would never wake up and one week of watching him blink awake for no longer than five seconds at a time before his eyes closed again, before he left John again.

Carson had given up on trying to send John back to his quarters after the first week, instead bringing a cot into the room where Rodney slept and cajoling him to eat every four hours or so. John couldn't leave, he needed to be there, he needed to see Rodney the moment that he woke up , the moment he gained lucidity. John refused to listen to Carson's cautions that Rodney might not be lucid ever again, that he might not be _Rodney_ ever again. He would be there, waiting, when Rodney opened his eyes, when that spark of life shone bright. He would be here. Ready to tell Rodney just how much he hated him for disobeying orders, for saving them all, for almost leaving him.

"John?" Rodney's eyes were bluer than John remembered although it seemed impossible that he could have forgotten them in only three weeks. "Hi," Rodney whispered through dry, cracked lips, painful and hoarse.  It was the best thing that John had ever heard.

John smiled for the first time in twenty two days. "I love you," he said.

 _Well_ , he thought, _that worked too._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Irrationalgame sent me a list of I Love You Prompts on tumblr and I said that I wanted to do a 35 part series filling them all.......behold part 1!
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](http://buffycuddlespigs.tumblr.com) i


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